


Don't Go Changing

by serohtonin



Category: Glee RPF
Genre: Light Angst, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-25
Updated: 2013-11-25
Packaged: 2018-01-02 15:51:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1058660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/serohtonin/pseuds/serohtonin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Darren finds his way back to Chris, and they learn to accept each other. Minor 5.06 spoilers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Don't Go Changing

**Author's Note:**

> This didn't happen, and I own no one. Title, and lyrics within the fic, are taken from Billy Joel's "Just the Way You Are," which I also don't own the rights to. Sigh.

_I don't imagine you're too familiar, and I don't see you anymore._

Those words ring in Darren's head, even as he drives away from the studio, where he had just finished laying down vocals for an upcoming episode.

He'd be lying to himself if he thought the lyrics didn't instantly bring Chris to mind, but then again, Darren supposes, he'd been lying to himself quite a bit lately.

After all the drama and deception of this past summer, he still wanted Chris, though his behavior had contradicted those feelings.

Chris had wanted something, _anything_ from Darren that could prove that their relationship mattered more than whatever professional success each of them had achieved.

_"Our careers could be gone tomorrow, Darren. If you don't tell me what this is between us, what I mean to you, maybe I will be, too,"_ Chris had shouted over the phone one night.

Darren had curled up in his tiny lonely bunk then, trying to remember Chris' scent, still on his sheets at home.

They hadn't spoken much since.

Darren knew he had to act, that Chris would never give him an ultimatum unless he meant it.

But Darren had felt bound by ridiculous obligations and sources pressuring him to define himself with uncomfortable restrictions.

He had publicly succumbed, yet he privately struggled, and it cost him dearly.

It had cost him Chris.

Now, Darren misses who he used to be before he submitted to this image, but he misses Chris even more.

Since they met, Darren had spent every waking moment memorizing Chris: from which songs he secretly enjoyed singing when he thought no one was listening, to this particular twitch he'd get when annoyed, and later on, the way he'd laugh when Darren's lips brushed the mole on his left inner thigh.

Darren tried to let this knowledge drift away, like he let Chris drift away, but he couldn't.

He wouldn't.

Chris captivated him, and still does, maybe even more so now, with how he's changed.

The snarky, intelligent, self-professed nerd that Darren had met was disappearing under hulking muscles and flashing cameras.

Darren did enjoy the former more than he cared to admit, and Chris could do whatever he wanted with his body and his life, though it made him miss the boy he had fell for a little over two years ago.

Through all this, the pieces that Darren thought were falling into place had shattered into a jagged mess, and somewhere between the drunken arguments and false accusations, Darren realized that they could never really belong to each other.

Their love didn't exist in a vacuum; it existed in this surreal world where they weren't the only people who mattered, where there would be others who judged them.

Chris had judged them, too, judged _him,_ more than Darren had thought.

 _"If you can't accept you, then I can't accept you,"_ Chris had snapped when Darren finally came home in mid-July.

Darren resented that statement, but he didn't deny it, either.

It was then that Chris had fallen into the rabbit hole of L.A. life, ignoring Darren in favor of glittering parties and shameless self-promotion.

Not that Darren didn't do those things, too, but when Chris did it, Darren had felt the last vestiges of the Chris he knew were dead.

Maybe, however, Darren could revive him, could revive them, he thinks while idling at a red light on his way home.

He texts Chris, not ready to hear the other man's voice yet.

_Can I come over?_

He doesn't wait for an answer, making a U-turn in the direction of Chris' place.

He needs to see him, despite all the changes between them. He needs to reconcile with Chris, before they change so much that they don't recognize each other at all.

Darren speeds down the street, his phone beeping with the notification of Chris' reply.

Darren dares to glance at it.

What he sees is a simple:

_Yes._

He tries to stop the hope from blooming in his chest, but it only blossoms even more as he approaches his destination.

Darren barely knocks before Chris pulls him in by the front of his long-sleeve shirt, and backs him against the slamming door.

"I--" Darren starts.

Chris presses a finger to Darren's lips. "I've missed you."

Darren opens his mouth to speak again, but Chris kisses him, one of Chris' hand landing on Darren's hip, and the other on the side of Darren's face. 

It's exactly how Chris used to greet him before they self-destructed, how Darren imagined Chris would greet him for the rest of their lives.

It's so familiar that it makes Darren's stomach flip and his heart ache with an echo of feelings he had nearly forgotten.

_"Chris."_

Chris smiles at him softly. "Like I said, I've missed you."

Darren just laughs, letting Chris take him by the hand and lead him to the couch.

When they sit, their clasped hands rest on Darren's knee.

"Now that I've stunned you into silence," Chris begins, "I suppose now would be a good time for me to talk."

Darren swallows, only fidgeting in his seat as Chris continues.

"I can't expect you to change, even for me, and I realized that I don't really want you to. I was being immature, and selfish, and I'm sorry."

Darren rests his other hand on one of Chris' knees. "Chris, it's okay to be pissed off at me, at the situation I put us in, but I should have respected you enough to at least admit that," he sighs and looks down at their joined hands, "I love you, so much that I can barely fucking breathe sometimes, and it scares the shit out of me. So, like the idiot I am, I pushed you away. I can't expect you to be okay with that."

Chris quietly gasps, his bright blue eyes shining with unshed tears. "If you _ever_ pull anything like that again, I'm going to fight harder."

"So, you're saying you wanna try again?" Darren asks cautiously.

"Yeah, if you want to."

Darren grabs Chris' face in his hands, pushes Chris back flat against the cushions, and kisses him desperately, drowning in the taste that he had been denied for so long.

"I--" Darren breaks off, but then kisses him again, "That's why I came over today. I wanted to fix everything. I'm ready. I'll do whatever you want. I mean it."

"Dare," he bites his lip, "I don't want you to compromise anything for me. You've already given me everything I could want."

Darren rubs his thumb over Chris' cheekbone. "Oh, yeah? What's that?"

Chris closes his eyes against the touch. "You. Your honesty. That's all."

"You don't have to change either, Chris. Although I have to accept that you will. We both will."

"What do you mean?"

"It's just," Darren kisses right behind Chris' ear, "a natural part of life, y'know? But we can work with that, with _this."_ One of Darren's hands slides down to grip Chris' bicep.

"Oh, I see," Chris breathes.

"Exactly."

Chris cradles the back of Darren's head, and it reminds him of the last time they had been together like this.

Darren stops, pressing his forehead to Chris' shoulder.

If they can have this, Darren figures that whatever he has to risk, whatever changes they have to suffer through, will be worth it.

Darren relaxes as Chris' arms envelop his waist.

As Chris' lips ghost featherlight against Darren's temple, Darren realizes that, underneath all those flashy layers, the person he had been missing still exists, and is still his to lose.

"I'm not going anywhere. Not anymore," Chris quietly reassures him.

"Me neither," Darren mumbles into Chris' shirt. "Can I stay?"

"Yes. You can stay as long as you want. You can stay forever."


End file.
